Historic Ã¢â?¬Ë?Rock HouseÃ¢â?¬â?¢ saved

Thanks to the Legal Aid Justice Center and many generous donors, including the Dave Matthews Band, C.B. Holt's famous Rock House on Preston Avenue, across from Washington Park, was saved from the wrecking ball. At a recent dedication ceremony, Julian Bond, the NAACP Chairman and a University of Virginia history professor, gave a brief history of the lives of men like Charles B. Holt and what it was like to live in the Jim Crow South.

Holt, born in 1872, was a well-known African-American carpenter, locksmith, and umbrella and furniture repairman; and he owned a repair shop at 115 4th St. NW in Vinegar Hill. He purchased the Preston Avenue property in 1917. Nine years later, he finished construction on the Craftsman style house using stones from the Rivanna River, carving his name on the front step to lay claim to a unique architectural and economic achievement. Now, the house will be home to a joint project between the University of Virginia School of Law School and the law firm Hunton & Williams to assist victims of domestic violence.

"I just think it's an awesome, awesome day," Tracie Fortune Tyler told the Daily Progress during the dedication ceremony. Tyler had lived in the house as a child in the 1950s "I'm basically speechless. It just does my heart good."